Hello, Goodbye
Trip Start
Jun 30, 2010
1
42
48
Trip End
Aug 15, 2010
Ithaca, New York
Monday, August 9, 2010
The Maid of the Mist has been running since 1846 (with different boats of course), and every day takes thousands of passengers on a cruise round the base of the falls. Boarding the Maid of the Mist you are handed a blue poncho to protect you from the elements, and you certainly need it. Passing the American Falls you get a little wet, moving onto Horseshoe Falls you get drenched. Horseshoe Falls is Niagara Falls. 90% of the water flowing over the falls, does so at Horseshoe Falls, totalling around 1 trillion litres per hour. Standing on the Maid of the Mist and looking up at Horseshoe Falls you are in total awe, and I've used breathless a handful of times to describes the sights I've seen on this trip and this is by far one of the most appropriate. Where the American Falls were disappointing, Horseshoe Falls could never be, and the Maid of the Mist takes you right into the proverbial eye of the storm, as you are taken so close to the falls you feel as though you could almost touch them.
Back on dry land, we exited via the elevator to the top of the observation deck, with the only way out conveniently being through the gift shop. Here we once again bumped into George, Hugo, Bertie, and Ji-Won, who had also been on the same boat as us, and once and for all said our goodbyes as our trips now go their separate ways.. I could almost swear there was a tear in George's eye.
From here we made our way over to Goat Island and had a little free time to explore Horseshoe Falls from above, before boarding the bus and moving on. On our way to our overnight stop, we had some time at a New York state winery, where we paid a measly $2 to sample eight local wines, with some homemade fudge thrown in too. Not exactly being a connoisseur of wine I thought each were nice enough, with my favourite being a sweet white wine called Crystal Lake, apparently one of the most popular to be produced in the Niagara region. Moving on, we decided to also stop off at a Cider brewery, where we sampled six different ciders, all of which were very nice.
With all of us now a little tipsy from our samplings, we headed on to our campsite at the interestingly named, and difficult to pronounce, Taughannock Falls State Park. After setting up camp, we had some free time so decided to have a short hike round the North rim of the Falls. Sweating buckets, we finally arrived at the Falls overlook, and after seeing Niagara Falls earlier this morning, Taughannock Falls could quite easily be described as a trickle. Making our way back to camp, we got into our tents just in time to avoid a downpour, which thankfully went away before we headed into the nearby college town of Ithaca, home of Ivy League school Cornell University, for our farewell meal, which feels incredibly strange since we only met each other yesterday. Our eatery of choice was 'Taste of Thai' which we eventually found after initially getting lost and experiencing some confusion with a 'Taste of Thai Express' which saw us enter, sit down, browse the menus and be approached for an order, before subsequently leaving in favour of the larger restaurant which serves alcohol where 'Express' did not.
With this being my first experience in a Thai restaurant, I played it relatively safe and stuck to Chicken Satay, although our tour leader, Jen, had me sample Lettuce Parcels which I absolutely loved and will be having again at some point in the near future. We sat round the table and chatted about ourselves and our thoughts on our far too brief trip together, each of us wishing we had more time to get to know each other. After dinner we headed back to camp and gathered in the nearby pavilion, where we chatted and debated various random subjects until the early hours, fuelled by our earlier purchases at the winery and cider brewery, before turning in for our final night of camping... thankfully!
